I agree with JGreco's assertion that the Spanish of the Canary Islands was influenced by Portuguese. As such, that variety was transplanted to many Spanish speaking Latin American Countries like the ones he mentions. The other thing that has not really been mentioned, or maybe it has, I'm not sure, is that Portuguese people will understand Latin American Spanish much better than Castilian Spanish. I am fluent in both languages, and even I at times have had found it a challenge to understand Castilian. It definitely sounds harsher and I do not like the lisping (i.e., [th]iviliza[th]ión = civilización) sound of it. But when I speak to Latin Americans, or listen to Latin American radio broadcasts, watch the movies or novelas, I understand the Spanish as though it were my mother tongue.
"the Spanish of the Canary Islands was influenced by Portuguese"
Im not too sure about what youre talking about George. The Canary Islands have not any dialect derived from Portuguese or anything. The Spanish spoken there is an standard Spanish within Spain. They just change a few words like for example saying "aca" instead of "aqui" or "guagua" instead of "bus" but it doesnt have much difference from Spanish in other parts of Spain. I´d say that the accent sounds a bit like the Cubanian accent but thats all.
I tell you that if you cant understand Castilian then you wont be able to understand people from the Canary Islands for sure..just go there and see it with your own eyes.
http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/
Here the official web site of the Canary Islands government for you to check the type of Spanish that they speak there in case that you have doubts.
Ana, I didn't say that I 'don't' understand Castilian - what I said was that I find it a challenge to understand it. Why is it that you take the simplist statements so out of context? You say that the Canarian accent sounds Cubanian, but I understand Cubans perfectly. And yes, the Portuguese were in the Canary islands during the early period of their settlement. It's in the history books.
>>Ana<<
I think you really need to read this "scientific paper" on the Spanish of The Canary Islands it will open up your eyes and show you not everything came from Castilian Spanish and all languages have influence from others.
Here's the web address:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/m/jml34/Canary.htm
You could be of any race and be racist as long as you hate another race or people.
>>Ana<<
The word "Cubanian" does not exist in English, you would just write "Cuban" as a plural term in English. That was a grammatical tip for you.
."..not everything came from Castilian Spanish and all languages have influence from others"
I agree george. Actually i think that latin american spanish (in general) keeps more links with portuguese than standard Spanish from Spain keeps with standard Portuguese from Portugal. Anyway Cuban Spanish is still Spanish and keeps more in common with Spanish from Spain than with Portuguese from Brazil. Any Cuban, Spanish speaker or Portuguese speaker know it.
Anyway, no doubt that some languages have influenced others along history and they´re still doing it nowadays as our languages keep developing all the time.
jgreco, thanks for correcting me, you can give me as many gramatical tips as you want :-) (in case that you´re patiente enough to do that)
"keeps more links with portuguese than"=keeps more links with Brazilian Portuguese than...
Once again Ana, you are misguided when you say that Cuban Spanish keeps more in common with Spain than Brazilian Portuguese does with Portugal - in terms of language that is. Have you ever been to Cuba? First of all, I have been there five times. Cuban Spanish is distinct in its own right. There are many, many words which the Cubans use that are foreign to Spaniards. There is a lot of phraseology that is different as well. But I still have no trouble understanding them. Did you read the paper that JGreco told you about? The phrase "qué tú quieres" closely parallels the Portuguese "O que é que tu queres". And many words which the Canary Islanders use are also of Portuguese origin. I find that the grammatical patterns and Portuguese influenced vocabulary from the Canary islands is present in Cuban speech patterns. When I first visited Cuba, I was immediately struck by how familiar Cuban Spanish sounded to me.
"Anyway Cuban Spanish is still Spanish and keeps more in common with Spanish from Spain than with Portuguese from Brazil"
This is what i really said George, read above.
About cuba, i still haven´t ever been there, but we have quite a few Cuban characters on the Spanish tv and i can assure you that they speak Spanish.
"qué tú quieres" I notice that it has something from ""O que é que tu queres". But in Spanish from Spain we say "qué quieres tú?" o "Tu qué quieres?"
Cuban is another variety of Spanish amongst the many you can find in Latin America. Influenced in some aspects by Portuguese, why not?
Well, I must firmly say that Cuban Spanish is SPANISH. I grew up in Miami, FL surrounded by Cubans. Though I do not like their accent, it is most certainly Spanish they speak. Of course there are phrases in the languages that are unique to Cubano, but that is present in every language - just like there are some phrases in American English that sound totally strange to a British speaker.
I don't understand why, "qué tú quieres" sounds so strange. You'd say "Che tu vuoi" in Italian - exactly same sentence structure. I would think it'd be the same structure in Castilian Spanish (or any form of Spanish) as well as Portuguese.
Sorry, I didn't see you Ana. In Italian, you can use "Che vuoi tu?" if asking a question, but I took his "qué tú quieres" to not be a question... since there are no question marks...
"Cuban Spanish is distinct in its own right."
Every variety of Spanish is distinct in its own right. Cuban Spanish is just one of the many varieties found in Latin America, even though it may not be viewed as prestigious.
Ana is correct. In Spanish, the correct form of asking a question is inversion: ¿Qué quieres tú? or Tú, ¿qué quieres?
Thus, failure to use inversion is a grammatical error.
"There are many, many words which the Cubans use that are foreign to Spaniards."
There are many words which the (Mexicans, Peruvians, Guatemalans, Chileans, Argentinians, Bolivians, Colombians, etc.) use that are foreign to Spaniards.
These words are "jergas" - slang, which vary from country to country and region to region.
I know Cuban Spanish is Spanish...all I was simply pointing out is that it has certain vocabulary and grammatical patterns which were heavily influenced by Spanish from the Canary Islands, and whereby Canarian Spanish was influenced by Portuguese.